The default music widget for Android is, well, not so great. It’s actually downright terrible. Luckily, there’s a far better alternative: Pure Music Widget.
Like the Pure Calendar Widget, Pure Music offers a huge number of sizes, so you can cram music controls onto your screen no matter how much room you have (or don’t have). What’s really nice is that you also get album art, so you can admire your taste in music right on your homescreen. Most importantly, you also get rewind AND fast forward buttons, a woeful omission on the stock widget.
Setup is a snap; there’s not much to it, honestly. You pop in and adjust the colors if they clash with your wallpaper, and then select your skin. Personally I like the transparent skin, as it shows off my live wallpaper really well.
Within the widget, there are three basic areas; the album art, the title, and the controls. Clicking the album art brings up a special Pure Music menu. It lets you toggle Bluetooth on/off, shuffle mode, repeat, enter the music player or configure the widget. Hitting the album title takes you into the music player. It’s a very clever and handy way to cram features in without overloading the interface. Shuffle and repeat are helpful functions but you don’t use them constantly. Of course, when you do need them, it sucks to go hunting through menus looking. Simplifying the interface but still tucking all the useful features in is a great touch.
(you don’t want to have the default widget cluttering up your homescreen, do you?)
For a mere $1.03 (give or take), this is a must-have app for your arsenal. It gives you a great deal of control at your fingertips and lets you truly use your Android phone as a no-compromises music player!
Hit the QR code here with your Android device, or search for “Pure Music Widget” in the marketplace!
